Commission slams 'patchy progress' on EU renewables goals
Brussels, 30 April: The EU is unlikely to meet renewable energy targets set for 2010, according to a report by the European Commission, which forecasts renewables will make up 19% of the bloc's electricity supply and 4% of the transport fuels by next year.

The report, published on Friday, shows the bloc will fall short of meeting its target of 21% of electricity from renewables and 5.75% of transport fuels – targets aimed at doubling the EU’s percentage of energy demand met by renewable sources to 12% by 2010, compared to 1997.

EU member states have made “patchy progress” towards meeting renewable energy goals, said the Commission, noting that while Hungary and Germany had already met their targets, other countries are lagging behind.

Six member states – Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Slovakia,  – have increased their renewable energy share in the electricity sector by more than 2 percentage points since 2007 – boosting the EU share of renewable electricity by almost 1.5 percentage points, from 14.4% to 15.7%.

However, in seven countries – Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Malta, Romania, and Slovenia – the share of renewable energy has stagnated or even declined during the last two years.

The report says there were a number of reasons for this uneven progress – both financial and administrative.

It says policy stability was imperative to facilitate investment in renewables and criticised “stop-and-go regimes” that ran out of money.

“[Administrative] procedures continue to be complicated, with multiple authorities requiring consultation when applying for construction, development or environmental permits,” says the report, suggesting that “the time lags involved and the uncertainty of the process remain major bottlenecks.”

Difficulties in connecting to the electricity grid because of “a lack of adequate rules on grid connection [and]…a failure to dedicate sufficient administrative resources to process applications” also hindered the growth of renewable energy, according to the report.

Problems such as the “limited capacity of the grid to incorporate more variable renewable electricity” and “financial constraints, with different and often opaque connection charging rules and risk of discrimination against smaller power generators compared to large incumbent conventional energy producers” were also blamed for disrupting the renewables market.

The majority of member states had made “good progress” towards increasing renewable energy in the transport sector, mainly through greater use of biofuels thanks to the introduction of tax exemptions and biofuels obligations. However, nine member states – Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Latvia and Poland – had made little or no progress towards their national targets.

The Commission suggested it was optimistic about the future growth of renewables in the EU. It said grid problems would be tackled by the EU’s third internal energy market package, due to be adopted later this year, and other difficulties solved via “new and stronger” legislation – as provided by the directive on renewable energy due to enter into force in May as part of the climate and energy package.